Tech —

Samsung's new tablet is all about the pen.

Today Samsung officially unveils its new Galaxy Note 10.1, which will go on sale tomorrow. The tablet is priced to compete with other high-end tablets: the 16GB version will cost you $499, while the 32GB device will cost $549. Last week, Ars got some hands-on time with the Android-based 10-inch tablet that comes with a stylus for note-taking.

It’s a bigger version of the Galaxy Note smartphone, but with a couple of extra bells and whistles and a lot more processing power. We’ll bring you an in-depth review soon, but let’s take a quick look at what Samsung told us is "going to be [its] hero tablet in 2012."

Entertainment-only tablets are so two years ago

As Ars reported earlier this month, Samsung revealed details about the Note 10.1 that showed a tablet with a quad-core 1.4GHz Exynos processor, 2GB of RAM, and WiFi and 3G options, although it was originally revealed in February with lesser specs—a 1.4GHz dual-core CPU, 1GB of RAM, and 16GB/32GB/64GB configurations. The 3G and 64GB versions of the tablet won't be available at launch, but company representatives noted that the existing tablets can be upgraded via the included memory card slot.

The display screen is WGXA with a 1280x800 resolution. The tablet I handled looked OK, but it wasn’t the sharpest-looking display I’ve ever seen. I largely used the tablet propped up on the desk dock that Samsung had provided (sold as a separate accessory), but when I picked it up it seemed solid and didn’t suffer from the Samsung Galaxy S III’s cheap plastic feeling. Samsung’s presentation was given using an HDMI dongle (sold separately) that mirrored everything from a Note 10.1 to a large TV screen.

The tablet will debut with Ice Cream Sandwich/Android 4.0, but the company says it will be sending Jelly Bean/4.1 upgrades "this year." When pressed about whether that upgrade would come in a week or three months, a Samsung spokesperson said he didn’t have a timeline for that yet. Like all Samsung mobile products, the Note 10.1 will come with a proprietary software layer over the Android OS, and will include a slew of apps optimized for use with the S pen.

In general, the Note 10.1 felt responsive and easy to use. It ran SunSpider in 1996 milliseconds, which according to recent Ars tests is not quite as good as the most recent iPads, but it's better than past Galaxy Tabs. In our full review, we'll be able to install Google Chrome on the tablet so we can do a better apples-to-apples comparison against the more recent Nexus 7.

Samsung reps said that the Note 10.1 comes with a 7,000mAh battery, although they said they didn’t know how that translated into battery life just yet (they claimed that tweaks were being made to the tablets on the production line that made them different from the pre-production units we were using).

The tablet comes with a 5MP rear-facing camera and a 1.9MP front-facing camera, but in the limited time I had with the tablet I wasn’t able to test it in action.

Making the S Pen feel special

"The 5.3 inch smartphone was really more of a test," a Samsung representative told a group of journalists last week. On the Note smartphone, the rep told us, "more than 50 percent" of customers used the pen everyday. So the Note 10.1 "is really going to be much more about the pen," Samsung said. Consequently, the Note 10.1 comes with a slew of apps custom-built to take advantage of the stylus.

Enlarge/ I used shape-matcher to get that lovely oval and my own handwriting for the rest.

The S pen that comes with the Note 10.1 slides into a side pocket built into the tablet’s casing. The pen uses capacitive resonance circuitry, which eliminates the need for a battery and makes it a little lighter. It interacts with an electromagnetic resonance grid layer under the LCD and has "palm rejection," which allowed me to rest my hand on the tablet and write without losing the connection with the nib. It can also detect how much pressure you’re using, and in some apps it can increase or decrease the brush or pencil size accordingly.

Enlarge/ The S Pen was small and light. People with giant hands might feel like they’re using a mini-golf pencil, but people with normal-sized hands will enjoy it.

S Note, Samsung’s note-taking app, was difficult for me to navigate at first. I found myself hunting to change the note-taking settings, and would often pop into the wrong window. You'll learn how to navigate it with time, of course, but it was frustrating at first. The app also comes with a handwriting-to-text feature and a shape-matcher feature, which adequately turned my scribbles into shapes most humans would recognize. The S pen felt pretty good. There was just enough resistance in the nib to suggest a "real" writing experience, and compared to other styli I’ve used, the S pen on the Note 10.1 was more precise, but don’t expect miracles right away—there is still a disconnect between writing on the Note 10.1 and good old pen and paper.

The Note 10.1 can also detect the S pen when it’s not tapping the screen, which was a very useful feature. Hovering over a menu button in a browser on the tablet opened the menu without loading an entirely new screen, eliminating a lot of the stress of browsing on a mobile device with just your fingers and your wits. Additionally, a button on the side of the S pen automatically takes a screenshot when you press it. As an owner of some older Android products, where screenshots are impossible without rooting your device or hooking it up to the desktop, I found this simple and refreshing.

Samsung also showed off a couple of other apps that come pre-loaded on the Note 10.1 and are optimized for stylus use, including Adobe Photoshop Touch and Kno. In Photoshop, the pressure you use with the S pen will automatically change brush size or use the pen to make other edits. This worked reasonably well and seemed only hampered by my control of the stylus on such a low-friction surface. Kno is an app that provides access to textbooks, so with the S pen-optimized Kno you can highlight sections or write notes in the margins like on a real textbook.

Dual-screen mode

Samsung’s best bid to be the answer to the world’s need for multitasking tablets is undoubtedly its dual-screen mode, however. You can run Polaris Office and a browser, and keep those two windows up side by side. Users can watch a movie and work in another window at the same time, or pop the video box out and watch a movie anywhere on the screen. I’ve long loathed the single-track vision of work on mobile devices, and I can see this making some chronic multitaskers happy.

When we tested the dual-screen mode, it seemed snappy and responsive—probably as a result of those beefed up internals. But we were unfortunately unable to test one of the major components that will make or break the Note 10.1—the battery life.

I'm really intrigued by the pen input. Can it be used to take detailed notes? I don't care if others can read them, but the ability to just down meeting notes and an occasional diagram is really important for me. Touch typing on a tablet is a challenge when there isn't a good table to put the tablet down on and in some cases makes it look like you aren't paying attention. I'd rather be able to scribble with the tablet in my lap or accross folded legs.

While "Palm rejection" sounds like a feature HP put into it's Touchpad tablet's marketing plan, I wonder if it is a feature other tablets can employ without the need for a special layer to use a pen.

If a tablet is using the capacitive layer to detect the pen, it has no way of differentiating the pen from a finger or a palm. By giving the pen its own layer, the tablet can disable capacitive touch when the pen is in use, and it also allows for multiple levels of pressure sensitivity for the pen. You only do this without a special layer if the pen contains the pressure sensor and is wirelessly communicating this information to the tablet.

All the tablets i've tried to date have been slow in their response and jittery. The videos for the Note 10.1 look good, but i really want to get my hands on one. Looking forward to the in-depth review and to getting my hands on one in the store.

Does it have the phone functionality or not? If I'm going to substitute this for a notebook in any number of cases, I want to be able to fit it in a sling and use a bluetooth piece, leave the handset behind.

Actually, this is *exactly* the device I wanted in a tablet. Last year. I still want the features -- I want to be able to sketch and take handwritten notes, or markup documents. I've tried the 3rd party stylus' on the iPad and on my Cyanogen Mod tablet. They stink. And you just can't do that kind of fine work with a finger.

Touch screens also stink at trying to edit text on an email or a even a text message. It's an exercise in frustration.

But for $500 and up, my tablet had better have specs that are reasonably modern, not last year's technology.

I'm really intrigued by the pen input. Can it be used to take detailed notes? I don't care if others can read them, but the ability to just down meeting notes and an occasional diagram is really important for me. Touch typing on a tablet is a challenge when there isn't a good table to put the tablet down on and in some cases makes it look like you aren't paying attention. I'd rather be able to scribble with the tablet in my lap or accross folded legs.

While "Palm rejection" sounds like a feature HP put into it's Touchpad tablet's marketing plan, I wonder if it is a feature other tablets can employ without the need for a special layer to use a pen.

Looking forward to the full review.

Well, on a Windows tablet, a wacom pen is very, very nice. Just go and ask anyone working as a designer / in graphics what they think of a wacom pen...

I have been waiting for this tablet since it was announced. I'm probably going to buy it still, despite the "low" resolution". It's got the same resolution as my 13" laptop, so I figure on a 10" screen it'll look even better.

I used to have a Tablet PC (Sharp TN10W from 2002), and it was awesome. I took all my notes on it in undergrad, and eventually gave it to my dad to use in his high school classroom. Now I'm excited to see an Android tablet with an active digitizer (that actually works... the Thinkpad was a nice try).

Captain Riker wrote:

I'm really intrigued by the pen input. Can it be used to take detailed notes? I don't care if others can read them, but the ability to just down meeting notes and an occasional diagram is really important for me.

Here's an example of an assignment I did on my old tablet: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4504287/example.pdf. I assume the performance on the Note will be similar - same or newer Wacom technology, and same or higher ppi (old one was 13" XGA).

Well, on a Windows tablet, a wacom pen is very, very nice. Just go and ask anyone working as a designer / in graphics what they think of a wacom pen...

I use my wacom mainly for desktop navigation and it is just what the Dr ordered. Not only a great input device but a lot easier on my hand and wrist than a mouse. On the PC, Onenote is very interesting for handwriting. Having the pen table integrated into the screen is mostly much better I would imagine as well. I just wonder about the performance.

"... the company says it will be sending Jelly Bean upgrades 'this year'..."

Uh huh. Reading this on a Galaxy Tab 8.9 that has yet to be upgraded to ICS, which Samsung has promised and promised and never delivered. No communication, and just vague "no timeline, but 'soon'" platitudes, just like they're giving the author here.

The dual-screen mode looks compelling, the price is reasonable and I don't care about the cheap feeling. I would want it to be responsive enough that I don't notice touch/pen lag 99% of the time (*any* computer will jerk once in a while) and have decent battery life, say 7 or 8 hours and a week standby. And not get hot in the hands, which pretty much goes with the battery life thing.

The kicker is whether it will get OS updates or not. I can't believe they're shipping it with an outdated OS, and I really don't trust Samsung to release any updates once they stop selling this particular model. Samsung (and Android vendors in general) have to get past this idea that they're selling disposable consumer electronics. These things are all computers, and we should be able to expect our computers to get updated within a reasonable time of a new OS launch. That way, software developers can target the latest APIs and users can get the best quality application experience.

Edit: And SinclairZX81's comment wasn't up when I started writing this, I swear.

I thought the point of pads was to get their touch-capability to be so good you didn't have to rely on a pen like you did with older pda's and such. Now we're back to pens again?

You are not getting it. The purpose of the S Pen is not for doing basic stuff one would be doing with modern-day ARM-powered tablets, like browsing, gaming, or general navigation. For that, the tablet will definitely do well without the help of the bundled stylus. The S Pen is supposed to mimic the feel and precision of pencil and pen on a paper while you are doing activities associated to said stationary, like writing, taking notes, doodling or drawing.

The screen will be as proficient at taking finger input as any screen fitted on any tablet ever. If you bought the Note, and lose the S Pen, you can continue using it just as you would with any other tablet, albeit without the ability to take advantage of the 1024 pressure level-sensitive, Wacom-branded digitizer.

I thought the point of pads was to get their touch-capability to be so good you didn't have to rely on a pen like you did with older pda's and such. Now we're back to pens again?

You are not getting it. The purpose of the S Pen is not for doing basic stuff one would be doing with modern-day ARM-powered tablets, like browsing, gaming, or general navigation. For that, the tablet will definitely do well without the help of the bundled stylus. The S Pen is supposed to mimic the feel and precision of pencil and pen on a paper while you are doing activities associated to said stationary, like writing, taking notes, doodling or drawing.

The screen will be as proficient at taking finger input as any screen fitted on any tablet ever. If you bought the Note, and lose the S Pen, you can continue using it just as you would with any other tablet, albeit without the ability to take advantage of the 1024 pressure level-sensitive, Wacom-branded digitizer.

... and it will fail.

"Ding, ding, ding. That's how many times the bell should ring to count out the Note 10.1's 1,280 x 800 TFT LCD display."

The S Pen is supposed to mimic the feel and precision of pencil and pen on a paper while you are doing activities associated to said stationary, like writing, taking notes, doodling or drawing.

That stuff can be done using your finger. Of course, using a professional drawing software like Corel would be useful, using your iPad itself (that's how i call tablets in general LOL) instead of a Wacom tablet .

Yeah! i meant, at 500$ i would expect a high quality, rock solid build feeling, something that feels like resistant glass or solid metal, not cheap plastic!.

I think this is just one of those things where some people have a problem with it and some won't. I have no problem with it and actually prefer the "cheap" plastic over aluminum because I can actually hold onto the thing. I saw that same complaint when I read reviews about the Galaxy Nexus phone, and I don't have any problems with it having a plastic battery door for the same reason. Certainly it's not the best looking phone from the side or back because of the plastic, but I rarely see that and thus I can't say I care. It's more important to me that I'm able to hold onto the device without it constantly slipping from my grasp than it is that it looks good.

The stylus and palm rejection seems well suited to use in my field (structural engineering; we've started using iPads to communicate with architects and builders), but the iPad has a strong suite of apps available already. Better graphics at the $500 price point will help the iPad as well (easier for reading .pdfs of old drawings without zooming in quite as much).

Tablets are great in the field. Normally I'm out there juggling a set of plans (which is either way too large, or shrunken down to 11"x17" with tiny text), a camera, and a notepad and pen, but iPads can replace all of those so you only two hands instead of four. It's not perfect, but it's quicker and it's working well enough in many cases.